IQE plc: Acquisition of minority interests in I...

IQE plc

Cardiff, UK

5 October 2020

Acquisition of minority interests in IQE Taiwan Corporation

IQE plc (AIM:  IQE, "IQE" or the "Group"), the leading manufacturer of advanced semiconductor wafer products for the global semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce the acquisition of third-party shareholdings in IQE Taiwan Corporation (“IQE Taiwan”), taking IQE’s ownership from 90.18% to 100% (the “Acquisition”).

The Acquisition was effected using a statutory share swap arrangement under Taiwan’s Business Mergers and Acquisitions Law (the “Share Swap”). Selling shareholders who accepted the Share Swap will be issued with shares in IQE on the basis of the average closing price of IQE’s ordinary shares of 1p (“Ordinary Shares”) on AIM in the 30-day period prior to today’s Acquisition effective date. Selling shareholders who rejected the Share Swap will have their shares in IQE Taiwan purchased for cash.

Selling shareholders representing 5.04% of the shares in IQE Taiwan, and 51% of the third-party shareholdings, accepted the Share Swap and the aggregate consideration payable to those shareholders is £1,437,646 which will be settled through the issue of 2,606,689 Ordinary Shares at an issue price of 55.15p per Ordinary Share (the “Consideration Shares”). Selling shareholders representing 4.78% of the shares in IQE Taiwan, and 49% of the third-party shareholdings, rejected the Share Swap and will have their shares in IQE Taiwan purchased for cash. IQE has agreed a cash price with a number of those shareholders but is waiting for the Taiwan Court to determine the price payable to the others, as part of the normal process to be followed under Taiwan’s Business Mergers and Acquisitions Law. IQE will therefore update the market once the total consideration has been determined.

Application for admission

Application will be made for the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM (“Admission”) and it is expected that Admission will take place on or around 6 October 2020.

Following Admission, the Consideration Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares, the total number of Ordinary Shares in issue will be 799,889,941 and the total number of voting rights will also be 799,889,941. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Group under the FCA’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Tim Pullen, Chief Financial Officer of IQE, said:

“IQE’s Taiwan subsidiary is of strategic importance to the Group as a base for epitaxy production in the Asia region. Having invested in the expansion of the facility in 2019 and looking forward to further growth in the future, I’m delighted to be bringing the entity under wholly owned status.”

Contacts:

IQE plc
[phone]
Drew Nelson
Tim Pullen
Amy Barlow
           
Peel Hunt LLP (Nomad and Joint Broker)
[phone]
Edward Knight
Nick Prowting
Christopher Golden
           
Citigroup Global Markets Limited (Joint Broker)
[phone]
Christopher Wren
Peter Catterall

Headland Consultancy (Financial PR)
+ 44 (0) 20 38054822
Andy Rivett-Carnac: [phone]
Chloe Francklin: [phone]

ABOUT IQE

http://iqep.com

IQE is the leading global supplier of advanced compound semiconductor wafers and materials solutions that enable a diverse range of applications across:

• handset devices

• global telecoms infrastructure
• connected devices
• 3D sensing

As a scaled global epitaxy wafer manufacturer, IQE is uniquely positioned in this market which has high barriers to entry. IQE supplies the whole market and is agnostic to the winners and losers at chip and OEM level. By leveraging the Group’s intellectual property portfolio including know-how and patents, it produces epitaxy wafers of superior quality, yield and unit economics.

IQE is headquartered in Cardiff UK, with c. 650 employees across nine manufacturing locations in the UK, US, Taiwan and Singapore, and is listed on the AIM Stock Exchange in London.